


Wedding Blues

by talkingtothesky



Category: Life on Mars (UK)
Genre: Angst, Bitterness, F/M, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-02
Updated: 2011-05-02
Packaged: 2018-04-17 08:56:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4660449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkingtothesky/pseuds/talkingtothesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gene's the best man, and the worst.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wedding Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Backdated crossposting - originally posted on my journal [here](http://talkingtothesky.livejournal.com/183046.html) (f-locked entry).

Sam looks resplendent standing at the altar, smiling as though he’s about to burst open with joy as his beautiful bride makes her way down the aisle. And she is, beautiful. Kind and patient and generous.

 

She doesn’t deserve Sam. Not this lying, two-faced mockery of a man. Gene’s tried to warn her off but it’s difficult to do effectively without compromising both of them. As much as Gene hates him, he couldn’t destroy Sam’s entire career, not over a drunken one-night stand which later turned into something bigger and uglier than either of them could control or understand.

 

But he’ll never forgive Sam for being so happy, now, while Gene sits gritting his teeth, smiling and clapping in all the right places. The immortal line passes him by with barely a churn of the stomach. Gene makes his best man speech with great aplomb as ever. He’s not going to give Sam the satisfaction. But the thought that Sam _doesn’t know_ how much this is killing him, hasn’t even considered it, is enough to make Gene’s blood boil.

 

They never made any promises, he knows that. It was just sex, with a bit of verbal abuse and life-saving thrown in. They yelled at and mocked each other, so that they worked harder and lived faster. It was far from conventional, but it was theirs. It was a reason to get up in the morning, to show that bastard Tyler who was boss, even when losing sometimes brought its own rewards.

 

But now…ever since Sam had announced his engagement their working relationship and tentative friendship had fallen apart. The late-night visits ended abruptly and down the pub every evening Sam was nowhere to be seen. The only time Sam had spoken to Gene on a personal basis was to ask him to be best man, which had earned him a smack in the teeth and a tacit agreement.

 

Gene drinks his way through a bottle or three after he waves Sam and Annie off on their honeymoon. He had even suggested the hotel, wondering if the choice would provoke Sam into something, but it didn’t work. Clearly Sam had deleted that weekend from memory.

 

He can’t blame Sam, really, going for safety instead of rash unpredictability. Too many times Gene had scared even himself with how close he nearly came to truly hurting Sam. But safe can also be synonymous with boring, and everything about the push-and-pull they’d shared had been exciting, life-affirming, passionate.

 

And it’s all very well that Sam gets the choice, but Gene has none.


End file.
